Fashion Designer, Paulette Martsolf and artist, Jim Lively brought their creative talents together to create an innovative concept of merging unique and original fashion with contemporary visual art. The concept gave birth to the endeavor known as “Allie – Coosh Lifestyle” and “Martsolf Lively Contemporary” where fashion gracefully and seamlessly collides with fine art.

Previously, Paulette owned Allie-Coosh which featured her own creative fashion for twenty-four years located in Snider Plaza. Due to escalating rent, she decided to renovate the building she owned near downtown Richardson which housed her manufacturing. The renovations resulted in an industrial chic venue which now houses both her manufacturing, a fashion boutique, art gallery and artist studio.

As the renovations began to unfold, Jim contemplated as to what might be an appropriate theme for a series of paintings to christen the new venue. After some thought, he kept being drawn back to his days in college where he had the luxury of studying philosophy. Jim was always intrigued by the concept of a priori which may be defined as relating to or denoting reasoning or knowledge that proceeds from theoretical deduction rather than from observation or experience. The first painting in this series is entitled “Fresh Start” which is an abstract piece that incorporates imaginary asymmetrical shapes into what appear to be wood grain slats. By its title, the painting is not dependent upon past experience but instead is forward looking and intended to be somewhat unique. Several of the pieces in the series such as the whimsically titled “Little Black Dress” embraces the theme of the Allie – Coosh Lifestyle and Martsolf Lively Contemporary of where fashion collides with art.